Conventionally, a printer having a print restriction function for restricting printing operations by using a print counter is known. By controlling an amount of print based on the print restriction function, unnecessary printing can be prevented. Japanese laid open patent application publication No. 2002-103753 discloses a color printer having a function capable of controlling the number of sheets of paper to be printed on a user basis. Such a color printer retains the maximum number of sheets of paper to be printed respectively for color printing and monochrome printing. If the number of printed sheets reaches the maximum number, the color printer stops printing.
However, such a conventional printer has a problem as described below. Such a conventional printer has a print counter, and can perform a printing operation within a range of values permitted by the print counter. This tends to make an impression that the printing operation can be performed without any troubles if the printing operation is performed within the range of values permitted by the print counter. However, in fact, the printing operation may not be performed due to lack of developing agent, despite that the printing operation is performed within the range of values permitted by the print counter.